PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Need for the education of vast numbers of men in various branches of Gas Service and those in camps on the position of Gas Warfare at the front, has made imperative the publication of this book, as has also the need of educating the public, owing to the many misleading newspaper reports, sometimes merely misinformative, sometimes distinctly mischievous, appearing from time to time.
Major Auld, chemist and teacher before the war, and as he modestly styled it, “amateur soldier,” volunteered for service at the front as a “Territorial,” at the very outset of the conflict.
Some months after the first gas attack, he was taken into the Gas Service, owing to his training and ability as a chemist, and later became Chief Gas Officer to Sir Julian Byng’s Army. He was awarded the Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme, and was wounded in an expedition into No Man’s Land to observe the effect of a British Gas attack. He has therefore been in touch with gas warfare from the beginning and knows all phases.
As the natural consequence of all this, the Government of the United States welcomed him as the representative of Great Britain in its counsel to America on all aspects of gas warfare. In this official capacity the Major has been engaged here assisting in organization and development of training, research and production aspects of Gas, and lecturing at camps, the War College, and West Point.
The American Gas Service has, for all these reasons, deemed the publication of Major Auld’s experiences very desirable.